Our Email Update - September

Dear Friends,

After 8 months of living out of suitcases, it is good to be back home. And now that we've got our phone and internet hooked up and the mound of suitcases (mostly) unpacked, the major remaining project is for John to find a suitable home for the stacks of books that continue to mysteriously multiply.

The plan for the next couple weeks is to meet with teammates and ministry partners to hear what God has been doing while we were away, including meeting another couple how recently joined our UWM team here! So the next couple of weeks will involve lots of discussion over coffee, prayer, and strategic planning for this next phase of ministry in Hungary.

Support Update

We are blessed to have such a great team of supporters behind us as we enter our second ministry term. Thank you for your prayers, your contributions, your encouragement, and all the other ways you have joined us in God's mission for Hungary!

Currently, we are still $300 short of our monthly support need, which will impact the types of ministry projects we'll be able to engage in. If you are interested in joining our support team, either just one-time or on an ongoing basis, please visit UWM’s online giving site (click here).

Thanks again for being part of our journey! We look forward to sharing with you the results of our upcoming strategic planning.

With our love,

John & Zsófi

Human-trafficking, Prostitution, and the Church in Hungary

This post might not be appropriate for some of our younger readers.  If you are under 16, please talk to your parents before continuing to read.

Prostitution (along with alcoholism, substance abuse, and corruption) is an issue in Hungary that has been on my heart for some time.  Last week, while talking to a colleague about ways for the church to become more proactive in addressing various social issues I discovered two things.  First, a huge number of prostitutes in Amsterdam are Hungarian.  Second, many of these women are forced into prostitution against their will and yet because of a lack of safe-houses in Hungary, even if they try to "get out" and come back to Hungary, they are quickly picked up and sent back to Amsterdam.  It is a vicious cycle, and without anywhere else to turn, these women are genuinely enslaved.

To make a long story short, I'm beginning to seriously think and pray about ways the church in Hungary might begin to address this issue (develop a safe-house ministry, etc).  However, in all honesty, it is a bit terrifying since there would certainly be some push-back from those that profit from the human-trafficking.  Therefore, I ask for your prayers.  The idea is still nascent, and nothing might ultimately come out of it.  But if this is a direction God is leading us (and perhaps some of our teammates and national partners), then we will need a lot of wisdom, courage, guidance, and perseverance.

Here is a recent news article on the issue (click here).